The next day was a Saturday, and he didn’t have to work. For once, he wanted to be around when Dylan woke up. Make him breakfast, hear how things were going with his community service.
Maybe give him a hockey lesson. Hockey skills would go a long way toward making the Lost Harbor kids accept him.
Despite his best intentions, sleep dragged down his eyelids. He was almost entirely under when Kate spoke again.
“I almost forgot.” She sounded drunk with sleep. “My old firm called and offered me my job back. Imagine that.”
He waited for more, his breath caught in his chest. Was she leaving? Heading back to the Kingdom of Cities? Why wouldn’t she? She’d always had one foot out the door.
Another snore told him he wasn’t getting an answer tonight. Well, hell.
He slid out of her bed and dressed, then padded down the outdoor stairs into the dawning blue of the next day.
Chapter Thirty
The Olde Salt Saloon always smelled as if they served turpentine and varnish on tap. With a garnish of sea kelp and a whiff of stale beer. It had always smelled that way, as far as Kate could remember.
She and Maya and another friend, Toni, had talked their way into the Olde Salt when they were sixteen and just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Maya had walked out in disgust. Kate had struck up an entertaining conversation with a deckhand from Dutch Harbor. And Toni—for some strange reason—had decided she wanted to bartend there some day.
“Hola, stranger.” She poured Kate a shot of something amber and unnamed from a flask. “Haven’t seen you in a hundred years.”
“I’ve been living that ancient curse, may you live in interesting times.”
“Tell me all. The real story, not the gossip I pick up from the motley crew here.” She wrinkled her forehead at the weathered and whiskered fishermen slouched at the bar. You could always tell a fisherman because they never quite lost that faraway horizon gaze—and they often had a stray fish scale or a bloodstain somewhere on their clothing.
“I want to hear the gossip first.” Kate tossed back the shot, which was strong enough to be either varnish or turpentine, but was probably some kind of whiskey. “It’s only fair.”
“Oh no, the gossip is just plain unbelievable.” Toni grabbed the bottle and scooted farther down the bar, out of earshot of the others. “I’m off the clock,” she called to the fishermen. “You’re on the honor system.”
Kate followed her into the dark shadows at the far end of the bar. It was mid-afternoon and outside the sun was blazing. Not California blazing—it was still only around fifty degrees. But warm and very welcome. Even so, here in the Olde Salt it could have been a winter night. The Olde Salt knew no seasons.
“Does that actually work? The honor system?”
“Yes, because they know I’ll kick their asses if they abuse it. Or at least ban them from the Olde Salt, which would be like death to these guys.” She splashed another shot into the glass. Toni was a badass in her own right. She’d studied martial arts and had once broken up a bar brawl involving three competing oil tanker crews. Maya might know everyone in Lost Harbor, but Toni knew all their darkest secrets.
She also knew to keep them to herself, which was why people confided in her. That, and because they were drunk.
Kate took a sip and made a face. “What is this?”
“Truth serum. Now spill, Naughty Kate. Are you really sleeping with the super-hot fire chief?”
Kate spluttered the rest of her mouthful of “truth serum” into a napkin and decided to bluff it out. “Seriously? Seriously? That’s what people are saying?”
“Okay, so that one’s obviously true.”
So much for bluffing.
Just then, Jessica slid onto the stool next to Kate. Her bright smile and auburn ponytail could have been a sunbeam lighting up the dark bar. “What’s obviously true? If we’re talking about Kate and Darius, someone needs to fill me in.”
“Oh cripes.” Kate dropped her forehead onto her folded forearms. “This is why I like cities. No one knows who you are or gives a crap about you.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. Woman up. Who cares what people say?” Toni gestured at the degenerate group farther down the bar. “Just look at them.”
It wasn’t so much that she cared what people said about her. She’d given up on that long ago. It was the idea that she and Darius hadn’t been existing in their own personal universe all by themselves. Other people had noticed. “I’m just not used to it, I guess,” she muttered into her forearms. “I like my privacy.”
Jessica gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have hooked up with the intriguing and wildly attractive new fire chief. Just food for thought. But I suppose it’s too late now, right? It’s pretty hot and heavy, or so I hear from my morning muffin customers.”
Kate made a face at her. “You’re just as bad as Toni. Something I never thought I’d say.”
Toni laughed as she added another finger of whisky to Kate’s glass. “So just how hot and heavy is it? That’s what we really want to know. No one can hear. It’s just us. Your summer sisterhood.”
Finally, Kate straightened up. “Very hot. Very heavy.” A dreamy smile spread across her face. “So very hot and heavy. Quite down and dirty too. Some wild and crazy thrown in.”
“Wow.” Jessica sighed and gestured for the bottle. Toni handed it to her and she took a long guzzle. “Gosh, that’s vile.”
“Yup. Have some more.”
“Okay.” She took another sip. With a revolted face, she pushed the bottle back to Toni. “You should pour that into a burn barrel and start a bonfire.” She turned back to Kate. “You have all the luck. You waltz into Lost Harbor and snag the hottest new guy in town. I’ve been hearing some crazy things at the bakery.”
“Me too,” said Toni. “I keep telling people they shouldn’t spread such ridiculous rumors, but you know how people are. What have you heard, Jess?”
“Someone said Darius just found out he has a son he never knew about.”
“Yup, heard that one.”
They both looked at Kate. “That’s true,” she admitted.
“Whoa.” Toni’s green eyes widened. “But it can’t possibly be true that his son has been setting all the fires around here.”
Kate glanced around the Olde Salt making sure they couldn’t be overheard. “That part’s true too, but please don’t say anything.”
“Oof.” Jessica winced. “Well, that’s certainly an awkward situation for a fire chief.”
“Dylan is…a little troubled. He’s had a rough time. Mother, stepfather…anyway, I shouldn’t say anything more. The situation is being handled. Dylan—that’s Darius’ son—has been doing community service at the firehouse.” She shouldn’t even say that much. But she trusted her friends. “Anything else in the rumor mill? Are we up to speed now?”
Jessica rested her elbow on the bar and propped her head on her hand. “Here’s one. Is it true you might be going back to LA?”